If you live, you owe, and the chance is that you have substantial credit card debt. You have probably had it for years and just can’t seem to pay it off. You make payments very month and it just seems that when the month rolls around, you still owe the same amount as the month before. Why? Because most people do not know how to pay off multiple credit card debts at the same time. While there are many bank ads and commercials on TV that show you what to buy and how to get into more debt, one good deal after the other, our educational system does not teach how to pay it off.

In order to figure out how to pay the debts, you first need to get organized. Calculate exactly how much you owe, what are minimum payments on each card, and the interest rate you owe on each debt. Now, I will tell you exactly what you are doing wrong, and how to catch up and get ahead of your credit cards. First you need to understand that you, as well of most people, are dealing with a very finite amount of money. That means that you have a set amount of money each month to deal with. For example, if you make about $4000 per month and your spouse brings in almost $3000, then the finite amount of funds you are dealing with is $7000 before taxes, and about $4,500 after taxes. The next step is to deduct your necessary monthly living costs. For example, if you know you need $1,500 to pay the mortgage and taxes and $1,000 for food and other necessities. Now you know exactly how much money you have to pay off the credit cards.

First, we will change the way you pay off the debts. They way the average person attempts to pay off their debt is by paying a little more than the minimum amount required for each debt. Simply put, you’re paying your bills the same way almost everybody else does, and its incorrect. I submit to you today, that if you continue to pay your bills the way you have in the past, you won’t pay off your debts for a long time if you ever actually do. You need to change your payment strategy. Understand that the only way to pay off your debts is one at a time; and not all your debts at the same time. I will show you a plan which you lead you to financial freedom. If you pay your debts as I instruct you today, you will pay off your debts and be financially free in just a few years.

For the next few months, your goal will be to completely pay off one debt, so that the following months, you will have one less bill to pay. To do this successfully, you will have to go into “attack mode”. “Attack mode” is my plan to pay off the debts one debt at a time. The first step in the attack is to identify which debt to pay off first. To do this, we need to write down and organize all your debts on paper. To calculate which debt to pay off, figure out which debt will have the most immediate impact on the next months ability to pay down the debts. Generally, it’s not the loan with the lowest payment, but the one with a balance that can be focused on and pay down in a relatively short amount of time. While you make a minimum payment to all your other debts, you will use all the remaining money on the one specific debt we are attacking. Do not pay any extra funds to their cards that are above the minimum payment required. When you are in attack mode, if you have any extra funds, you need to use them to pay off the specific debt you decided to attack first. Remember, you must stick to the plan on order for it to work. Eventually, when you completely pay off one of the debts, you will have additional monthly funds to pay ahead on the next debt.

For example, if you no longer have the $300 dollar debt to pay off every month, then you will have an extra $300 every month to Attack another debt. Can you imagine how much faster you could pay off the next debt in line if you added $300 to the monthly payment you already make? It becomes a snow-ball effect. Every time you pay off a debt, you significantly increase the possibility of paying off the other debts; one debt at a time.

Do you want to really why no one else told you this years ago? Simply because the credit card companies do not want you to pay off your debt. Do not forget, they are making millions of dollars off people like you. The less you know, the better off the Credit card companies are. The more you know, the worse it is for them. Keep attacking your debt one debt at a time. The debt table below will help you to understand just how long it will take you to get out of credit card debt. Since this chart is based on a $10,000 debt, if you only have $5,000 in debt, divide the monthly payment numbers by two. If on the other hand you have $20,000 in debt, then multiply the number by two. By using this table, you should realize that you need to both minimize your interest rate and maximize your monthly debt payment.

Number of Months to Pay Off a $10,000 Debt for Select Debt Payments